因而
yīnér · HSK 5
consequently
➡️ 因 = cause + 而 = and-so; cause-and-therefore = consequently
因 means cause or reason; 而 is a classical connector meaning and-thus or and-so. Together 因而 literally reads cause-therefore, used to introduce a result that follows from the previous clause.
因 — enclosure 囗 + big 大
因 originally pictured a person (大) lying on a mat or cushion, shown by the surrounding box (囗). The original sense was 'mat' or 'to rely on,' which extended to 'cause,' 'reason,' and 'because of.' The 'mat' meaning was later written with 茵.
而 — pictograph of beard/whiskers hanging from chin
Originally a pictograph of a beard or facial hair hanging below the chin, visible clearly in oracle bone and bronze script forms. The beard meaning was lost early, and the character was borrowed phonetically to write the grammatical conjunction 'and/but/yet'. This connective use has been standard since classical Chinese.